Archaeologist B.B. Lal's latest research capsizes some dearly held views on the Indus Valley Civilisation and the arrival of what are thought to be the warmongering Aryans.

Archaeologist B.B. Lal's latest research is out to capsize some dearly held views on the Indus Valley Civilisation and, consequently, the arrival of what are thought to be the warmongering Aryans. Did you think these guys came from outside the subcontinent, from a convenient fatherland called Central Asia?

Lal's voice is unable to contain the seditious thrill of demystification. "Not possible," he says slowly. "Saraswati, the river revered by the Aryans, is repeatedly mentioned in the Rig Veda as 'overflowing'. Recent discoveries show that Saraswati dried up in 2000 B.C., the age of the Indus Valley." He stops there? letting the explosive inferences of what he has said hang in the air like unearthed dust.

Lal's obsession in The Saraswati Flows On (Aryan Books) is basically to counter arguments of ancient Indian historian R.S. Sharma (also NCERT's history author) and his ideological advocates who basically said that the emigrant Aryans entered the Khyber in 1500 B.C., about 300 years after the dissipation of the Indus Valley.

He also refutes the charge of archaeological jingoism, perceived to be the logical corollary of the indigenous origin theory. "The climate of the time would suggest that I'm saffronising history. That is a great tragedy. I only ask everyone to look at the facts. And I do hope R.S. Sharma gives a rejoinder." Conspicuous in Lal's south Delhi apartment is the POP version of Mohenjodaro's "bearded priest", symbolic of a life of subterranean disclosure.

Lal, now 80, was drawn to archaeology after studying Sanskrit at Allahabad University. In 1943 he became a trainee under Mortimer Wheeler in the outpost of Taxila, and remembers how he was audacious enough to point out some errors in Wheeler's dating strategy.

He later excavated many ancient sites, including Kalibangan, and became the director of the ASI in 1968. Now he's also trying to prove the historical basis of the Mahabharata, saying that many of the names of places in the epic still exist and that the PGW pottery found there is of the same period as the epic. Sharma?